Claws
by Kandomaru
Summary: A trip to America leads Ranma on the greatest adventure of his life. Maybe even true love. That is, if the boy finally learns to think first and speak later. Not likely, though...


**Claws**

By: Kandomaru

Disclaimer: Ranma½, Gold Digger, and any other character, series or cameo that shows up in this story belongs to their respective owners. I only borrow them for fun, and will give them back once done. Promise.

Prologue: _Dreams, a mission, and the Orichalcum Chase_

Ranma awoke to the smell of wet grass. The scent covered the air in a light mist that tickled the nose with it's fragrance. The young teenager inhaled deeply the odor, savoring the sweet memories that it brought back to him.

_Dark hair flew all around as she kicked and punched. Grass flew everywhere as her strong attacks tore at the earth around her. Then suddenly, stillness, and a sweet smile that looked at him and spoke his name with love._

The dark-haired boy opened his eyes and was brought back to reality... his reality. He was in a dark room that smelled of wet fur, accompanied by a fat panda he usually called dad. The boy sighed as he reclosed his eyes and wondered why the dream would persist so much.

'**Who is that girl?**' he wondered to himself.

He could see her lips; those pink, kissable lips; but the rest of her face remained a total mystery. Was she from a previous life? Or perhaps his fated soulmate? Or maybe even a ghost trying to speak to him? Ranma pondered over all these questions as he got up and headed outside.

The sky was all dark blue except for a small flame over the horizon that signaled the coming of dawn. Ranma turned his greyish blue eyes skyward and watched as the stars winked out of view one by one. A smile tugged at his lips as he imagined that they had not paid their electricity bills because Nabiki had blackmailed them.

'**I'm not sure whether to feel bad for thinking that, or because it's true.**'

Shaking his head out of it's introspectiveness, the talented heir of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts stretched out for a bit; right before he exploded into a blur of movements. Punches and kicks came and went so fast, the only thing that proved their existence was a brief flash of motion and a gust of air. The boy took to the air, where he almost seemed to float with supernatural skill.

In the middle of his kata, Ranma sense he had an audience, but he did not stop his movements. Whoever it was, they could wait until he had finished with his morning workout. At the moment, his life was not crazy and fraught with peril. There was only the art.

Landing in the middle of the yard, the young boy allowed himself a moment of pride by lifting his arms up in victory like a gymnast would after giving it their all. Applause greeted the boy as a sweet voice said, "You're so talented, Ranma! You must be very proud!"

The boy soaked up the praise like a sponge as he looked at his audience. Kasumi stood at the doorway, wearing an apron and a big smile along with it. As the eldest daughter of the Tendo family, she was also the most mature and kindhearted of them.

Sometimes, it felt like Kasumi had inherited all the kindness and maturity that had been meant for all three sisters.

'**That would certainly explain a lot,**' he joked to himself as he went to the furo and took a hot bath. Letting all his stress float away, the young boy forgot one very crucial detail. A detail that would make itself known very soon.

Just as he was stepping out of the water, the door opened and bad timing walked in. She was better known as Akane Tendo, a short-haired girl that could be sweet during those rare moments when she was not overcome with murderous rage. This, unfortunately for him, was not one of those moments.

"I guess I forgot to put up the sign?" Ranma laughed nervously as Akane's face went from pink, to red, to brown, and beyond. Into colors not yet discovered by the world of art. "Oops..."

"RANMAAAAAAAAAAA!" The familiar scream was followed closely by a loud bang that was a few decibels short of a full-blown sonic boom. Then came the crash as the unhappy boy was unwittingly launched through the roof and into the air thanks to his uncute fiancée.

The travel back was just the same old same old. Several attacks, a few professions of love, and, curiously, one thumbs up. Thankfully for his decency, Akane's bathroom antics happened so often, Ranma even had a change of clothes waiting for him upon impact.

Breakfast was also a scene that had played out countless times before. Ranma had to fight his father for food, exchange verbal insults with Akane, and do his best to not say anything to Nabiki if he wanted to not be poor. Soun and Kasumi remained outside the chaos, feigning ignorance towards it.

As a martial artist, and a talented prodigy that only came about every thousand years, Ranma was proud of his ability to sense danger. Regardless of whether it was physical or otherwise, he saw it coming. Whether he could actually avoid it... it was best not to dwell on such a depressing subject.

Danger came in the form of simple news story.

"Excuse me," Soun said in a polite tone, which was completely ignored by everyone. Clearing his throat, the owner of arguably the best Mustache in Nerima tried again, "I said excuse me." Seeing that it wasn't working, Soun decided to try the surefire, pay-attention-to-me-now method.

"_**LISTEN UP!**_" Demon-head Soun screamed. His loud voice boomed through the whole house, echoing out into the street. Everyone froze in place and sweet silence filled the room.

Releasing the technique, or ki construct, or whatever the hell it was, Soun raised the newspaper and showed everyone a black and white picture. "What is that, daddy?" Akane asked as she leaned in and tried to make sense of the image. "Hey! That looks kinda like..."

Ranma also took a good look at the picture, seeing a small creature with large eyes and a big sack strapped to it's back. "So the old pervert is stealing underwear again. So what?"

"Look closer at the image boy," Genma advised, sporting a grim look on his face.

The pigtailed boy followed his father's advice, scrutinizing the picture closely and carefully. The second time through, he saw that the skin visible of the pervert seemed wrong. Almost... robotic? "Did someone make an android version of that freak?" Ranma wondered out loud.

"Imagine if it got mass produced," mussed Nabiki.

Everyone at the table envisioned an apocalyptic future where an army of diminutive perverts terrorized the world. No, the universe. Chants of "SWEET-O!" and "WHAT A HAUL!" rang out in a monotone over and over and over...

"Where is this abomination at!" Ranma asked as Akane prepared the suitcases and Nabiki took care of the travel arrangements.

"According to the paper, this picture was taken in Atlanta, Georgia." At Ranma's blank expression, Soun added, "That's in the United States."

The smart-mouthed boy quickly exclaimed, "That explains it! Those guys love to fool around with dark powers beyond their understanding!" Akane smacked Ranma upside the head before he could get rolling on a big speech about zombie outbreaks and mystical invasions. "So... Who's gonna stop this?"

"Ranma."

"Ranma."

"Ranma."

"Not me."

"Ranma."

"Ranma."

"... Damn it!"

That was how Ranma had found himself suddenly on a plane clear across the world. To say that his ticket had been cheap was a laughably poor understatement. The seats were cramped, the air smelled bad, and Ranma could have sworn he saw the pilot drinking something that looked radioactive.

In short, it sucked to be him for the next several hours. That was how long a trip from Japan to America lasted, right? Several hours? If the young martial artist could have heard the raucous laughter that fate and destiny shared, he would have cried.

While Ranma pondered the possibility of crossing whatever oceans divided east and west by swimming, a large female full of fur fought an army of skeletons. She yawned theatrically as she casually crushed over a dozen ribcages with a simple spinkick. "Are you done yet, Gin?"

"Not yet," responded the pretty blonde with the big glasses and even bigger chest. "Don't rush me. Opening an ancient door with a lock made of mystical, spiritual, and indestructible materials takes time." She winced as she heard another skull get caved in. "... And it doesn't help any when you do that."

"But I'm bored!"

The two of them were Brittany and Gina Diggers. Infamous adventurers known worldwide for their amazing ability to discover the most hidden of treasures, and also for looking good while doing so. On top of being smart, Gina was also an accomplished. Brittany, on the other hand, was just good at kicking ass.

The proof of her martial arts skills lay scattered all around them as the army of skeletons had to climb over a huge pile of their recently vanquished brethren. Their empty eye sockets burned with mystical energy as an endless supply of them came from the walls and floors. They weren't unskilled either. They were just not good enough to be anything but a bother.

"And... Done!" Gina stepped back from the huge door as it rumbled and glowed brightly. The blonde watched entranced as thousands of near microscopic devices folded the huge stone until it took the form of a huge mouth. "It's gonna eat us, heh, how cute."

"Can we move on now?"

Ignoring her sister's impatience, Gina advanced slowly while openly admiring the architecture of the temple. "Amazing," she commented with wonder as she documented everything she saw. "Everything in here is over five thousand years old, but it still looks as good as new."

Now it was Brittany's turn to ignore her sibling, as the powerful werecheetah blocked off the entrance with a huge boulder to keep the skeletons outside.

Further inside the temple, the pair found a large, circular room with an altar placed in the middle of it on top of a platform with stairs. Turning to her sister, Brittany joked, "I bet you a hundred pounds of tuna that the trap in this room is it floods." Gina walked forward slowly, almost in a trance. "Gin?"

"Do you know what that up there is?"

The werecheetah looked at the altar, seeing nothing but an inauspicious, aquamarine stone. "A big rock?"

"It's Orichalcum. An ancient metal fabled to be indestructible and able to channel potent magic."

Thinking about it for a second, Brittany commented, "But wouldn't the magic itself be what makes it unbreakable in the first place?" Gina glared at her sister for ruining her dream of indestructible sex toys. "Hey, I'm just saying..."

The two of them walked up the stairs toward the altar calmly, knowing that whatever trap was here would be at the top. While Gina studied the area, Brittany entertained herself by whistling a cheerful tune. The song was disrupted as the ground suddenly started to shake.

"What did you do?" the tall girl asked.

"Nothing! I was just observing the pedestal!" Electricity coursed through the walls and thunder echoed over the entire chamber. "... You know, it's like it knew it was being watched." Almost like in response, out of the wall came a group of five stone constructs that looked uncannily human.

Smiling in expectation and cracking her knuckles, Brittany asked, "If we get another sister out of this, are we gonna call her Gittany?"

The powerful warrior leaped into action, delivering powerful attacks with amazing speed. The force of her blows knocked back the golems, but didn't actually do anything to harm them. "Keep them busy while I figure out their weakpoints," Gina said.

"No hurry. I could fight these guys in my sleep." To prove her wrong, the creatures started to move faster and hit harder. Beyond that, their movements felt like they were actually learning how to counter her techniques. "Not bad, but can you handle this?"

She clawed at the air, shooting three vertical lines of chi flying at her opponents. For the first time in their brief fight, the creatures tried to avoid the attack. One of them managed to survive while the rest were sliced into lifeless chunks.

"That wasn't so hard." Brittany's confident smile slowly faded away as the last survivor absorbed his friends and grew ten times in size. The werecheetah repeated her last attack, but the monster completely ignored the energy, as if it hadn't even touched her. "Gin... tell me you got something."

"I've almost figured it out. Keep it busy just a few more minutes."

Brittany narrowly avoided a gigantic fist that crushed the spot she had occupied previously. Any hope that this oversized version would be slower was quickly dashed as it threw blows at speeds that would have overwhelmed someone that wasn't part of a species that moved at supersonic speeds. Brittany, thankfully, was part of that species.

Gina slapped her head as the answer, which had been right in front of her all along, was finally revealed. "Brit!" she yelled to get the werecheetah's attention. "Forget that thing!" Let's just grab the Orichalcum and get out of here!"

Following her sister's advice, the nimble catgirl rushed toward the altar and took the large stone from it. The ground shook again in response as spouts of water appeared randomly around the walls. "You owe me a hundred pounds of tuna."

"Make sure you don't leave the Orichalcum behind and I'll give you three hundred pounds of tuna."

"Deal!"

-End Prologue-

Author's Notes:

Thoughts? Suggestions? Lymerics? For these, or any other comments, feel free to review the story. Just don't ask me about pairings. Mainly because, I'm not sure who to hook up Ranma with. Not yet, anyway...


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